Review article SWISS MED WKLY 20 09; 139 ( 1 –2) : 4 –8 · www.smw.ch Peer reviewed article 4 Lung transplantation for COPD –

Lung transplantation has now been per-formed for more than 30 years in patients with end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This disease is the major indication for lung transplantation, involving more than one third of the procedures worldwide. Although lung transplantation in COPD patients has clearly shown a positive impact on lung function, exer-cise capacity and quality of life, the survival bene-fit remains difficult to ascertain. Several method-ological difficulties, particularly the absence of classical randomised studies, make the analysis es-pecially challenging. There is however indirect but convincing evidence that lung transplantation can, when appropriate selection criteria are ap-plied, provide not only an active post-transplant lifestyle but also a survival benefit for patients with COPD. Key words: COPD; lung transplantation; sur-vival; BODE index Summar